Terming the report of Inquiry Commission as landmark, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said that the country will embark upon a new era of peace and prosperity after the commission's report that has declared the general elections in accordance with law. Addressing the nation on Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television, the prime minister said that the Inquiry Commission had been constituted to inquire into three questions:
(1) Were the general election 2013 held impartial, free and fair and in accordance with the law? (2) Were the general election 2013 results affected through planned rigging? (3) Were the election 2013 results reflective of the mandate given by the public through their votes?
After a through probe into the rigging allegations, he said the Inquiry Commission gave final answers to these question; according to which in light of all the evidence provided, the Commission believes that the Election 2013 were held in accordance with law.
"The participating parties were not able to prove planned rigging," he added. "In totality, there were some lapses by the Election Commission of Pakistan but still it cannot be said that the results were not reflective of the public mandate," Nawaz Sharif said, adding, "The text of the report has been made public and the Commission provided all the parties the time and platform to provide evidence".
Prime Minister further said he was ready to forget the sour memories of the past but it is hoped that the people who had wasted precious months of nation's life will learn from their mistakes. It was one of the very few incidents in the history of world when a government went into inquiring the elections that it had won, he said, adding we had also given a written commitment that if the commission said that the elections were rigged, the government would resign.
Nawaz Sharif said it has been proved that the problems are solved in the parliament, and not on streets. The electoral reforms are still a must and the government will continue to work on them. He said that improvement in electoral system is a part of Pakistan Muslim League's (PML-N) manifesto and he had urged the Speaker National Assembly to form an electoral reforms committee in June 2014. "This committee was formed and several meetings have already been conducted," he said.
The Prime Minister said that instability hinders the progress. He said that everyone knows how much this instability has cost this country. "Had our politics been free of instability during the last 70 years, we would have been a strong country today," he said. "I had promised the politics of values instead of politics of power," he said. "We knew there was no rigging in the election 2013 yet we decided to go for the judicial inquiry," he said.
"The comprehensive report of the Inquiry Commission is not only endorsement of the government's point of view on the issue of electoral rigging but also authentication of people's mandate. "The chapter of allegations and false accusations should come to a close forever. Ever since general elections, his government pursued constructive policy of mutual consultations, reconciliation and consensus building," he said.
He said establishment of governments as per mandate of the people, the National Action Plan, Constitutional Amendments and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are some of the major decisions that have been taken with consensus. The government is fully committed to eliminating terrorism and results of the operation Zarb-e-Azb are before the nation.
The Prime Minister said he has declared his resolve to pursue value-based politics rather than that of power and he is sticking to this commitment. He said he would give preference to national interests over personal or party interests. He further said that "now we have to correct the mistakes made in the past and also discourage the people inciting violence, adding we do not have any time for these baseless slogans and fake propaganda anymore. We now have to focus on the bright future".
Pakistan today is much better than the one we had two years ago, he said, adding our economy is improving and our international standing is much better. "And Pakistan will be much stronger after three years compared to the one we have today," he maintained. He said that our army, civilian institutions and civil-military law-enforcing agencies are fighting the terrorists. "It is our resolve to bring peace to these mountains and our cities", he said.
He further said that many cities and villages of the country are suffering due to floods at this moment. "I have directed all the provincial governments to handle the issue in an efficient and effective manner and the federal government is also up to the task", he added. The prime minister said that he was personally going to visit the flood affected areas and monitoring the situations to ensure relief work is implemented perfectly.
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